Offhand Spears: are they viable?

I've spent some time away from Souls in the past few months, but I'm ready to jump back in with a new build. My idea is to make a build that uses a long spear in the left hand to poke with something quicker in the right hand. Here is a draft of what I'm thinking about. What do you guys think? Is it viable?

PS the attunement slot is for flash sweat and iron flesh if I ever feel the need for them in ng+.

Last edited by testspecimen85 on Thu Jun 27, 2013 5:29 pm; edited 1 time in total (Reason for editing : clarity)

Spears are some of the best offhand weapons out there. In my experience they go great with slower weapons like great hammers. But seeing how the range counters the no-range of the curved sword it should work just as well

I once ran around with the SKS in the off hand and GT in the Main. I eventually switched the MH away from the curved sword because I missed kicking. But the OH spear worked quite well.

Demon's also works great on a Str build as a quick option to keep them on their toes. The fact that it shares split quality scaling with the likes of the Claymore and Zwei make them excellent partners. Rolling R1 with Leo ring from the Zwei is rather painful

Spears in the off-hand can always find a way to be used. I use them often on my quality build to keep people at range or to get in a quick mid-roll poke on someone for some extra damage. Just make sure that the other off-hand weapon can parry.

I agree with Lunar as well, I find spears are best used with slower weapons. Specifically I have had a lot of success with the Claymore and SKS combination. However, spears tend not to be very useful in the off-hand when using halberd or scythe weapons. The main advantage of the spear is it's range and halberds/scythe weapons have similar range to spears. Also, using two weapons with the same attack style is not recommended. If you use a spear in the off-hand make sure the weapon in the main hand has a good horizontal attack or two.

Eko wrote:...The main advantage of the spear is it's range and halberds/scythe weapons have similar range to spears...

That sort of hints at why I am personally loving a spear in my left hand right now. I've tried it before, but in the particular set up I have right now...well, I falling in :x

By having it in your left hand, you only lose the running attack and the 2-handing. Is it better in the main hand?...sure, but I think every weapon is (except most shields ). The only thing really interesting about a spear (for the most part), is it's "poke and defend" inherent play style. So if you choose something else for your main, you can still take advantage of a spear's most attractive trait.

I'm really considering making a sl 200 arena build with a SKSpear in the off hand.

So I've started playing through with this build. I'm at level 45 (30/10/31/12/13/10/9/11) and have all of the weapons I planned on using and I've got to say, this is some of the most fun I've had playing in DkS since the forum event in the Depths. I can see why Lunar Fog said that offhand spears work well with slower bruiser-type weapons, and I'm probably going to try something like that next, but I'm just loving this falchion/demon's spear combo right now.

The only thing I'm worried about is whether or not I should cap this build at 75 or not. If I take it to 100, which was the original plan, I'm worried that an elemental falchion and a demon's spear just won't have enough pop to be competitive. Also, if the small sampling of pvp I've done so far with this build is any indication, I'm going to have a lot of drawn out encounters. Any suggestions?

One thing people often seem to forget about the Demon Spear, is that despite it being an elemental weapon, it has C/C scaling and benefits a good bit from stats unlike weapons made elemental through upgrades.

If you're willing to lose out on some of that gouged vitality you could make a build like http://mmdks.com/2xai And stay at 100, and now your weapons have decent scaling from the 40 dex.

i like the old des setup with wing spear uchi combo but in demon souls wing spear was main hand n off hand uchi its still does work okay in dark souls its just gotta go main hand uchi n off hand spear u still can chain combos but not like u can in demon souls or trying out main hand spear n curved sword off hand that works well 2 or the other way around

Jansports wrote:One thing people often seem to forget about the Demon Spear, is that despite it being an elemental weapon, it has C/C scaling and benefits a good bit from stats unlike weapons made elemental through upgrades.

If you're willing to lose out on some of that gouged vitality you could make a build like http://mmdks.com/2xai And stay at 100, and now your weapons have decent scaling from the 40 dex.